


Tempus Infinitum

by supremes



Category: American Horror Story: Apocalypse
Genre: And Delivers Such Deliciousness and Fanservice, Bathtub Showdown, Bow Down to Your Next Supreme, Except maybe don't drown in the tub irl, F/M, Mallory Not Being Ready TM, Mallory Will Drive that Black Sedan Right Into Your Ship, Michael Feeling Completely Lost is Such a Feel, Sympathy for the Devil, That Feel When Ryan Murphy Wants Our Mortal Soul for Cody Fern, There's No Instruction Manual for Tempus Infinitum
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-10
Updated: 2018-11-10
Packaged: 2019-08-21 11:30:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16575614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/supremes/pseuds/supremes
Summary: Takes place when Mallory is reanimated and follows a familiar narrative. She climbs into the bathtub in Coco’s suite at Outpost 3 to travel back into the past using Tempus Infinitum, intent on stopping Michael, but things don’t go according to plan. A bathtub showdown for the ages.





	Tempus Infinitum

Mallory loved her sisters and her Supreme without question. She thought her faith in them would never be shaken, and if you had asked her if in a million years she would ever think to turn against her coven, her immediate reply would have been never. Nothing could have undone her resolve to do anything to protect the coven. That is, until she woke up on the stone floor of Outpost 3, to learn that she had been placed underneath an identity protection spell. Seconds within being reanimated, everything she knew about herself was shattered into pieces. The things the people surrounding her were saying made no sense, but things began to click into place at a jarring pace. Mallory was a witch. Her magic powers along with her identity had been trapped within her under an identity protection spell, and they had been what surfaced during her interview with Michael, when she’d admitted that it felt like something was trying to claw its way out of her. 

She’d admitted this in a daze, under some kind of hypnosis, as if she weren’t herself. Under Michael’s overly-familiar, honeyed suggestion. His words pried out the uncomfortable truth, and suddenly Mallory wanted nothing more than to run from what was buried inside of her. Her desperation to run away from her powers and who she really was couldn’t have been more obvious as she lost control in Venable's office. It was the opposite of what she’d felt when she’d been at Miss Robichaux’s, before she’d been placed under the identity protection spell. Or that’s what it seemed like at first glance.

The truth was she was full of doubts as the Mallory who worked alongside the coven. Once her role as the next Supreme was discovered, Mallory became troubled. Cordelia assured her that she would be ready to ascend, that she was unimaginably powerful, and would possess the strength and the power necessary to defeat an evil like Michael. Mallory wasn’t stupid, though. She knew Cordellia felt that she wasn’t ready to face Michael. Cordelia suffered from the loss of the members of their coven at the hands of Michael. Ever since they lost the witches at the Academy and found the remains of the Warlocks, something had broken within Cordellia. The decisions Cordelia made since then were ones Mallory tried hard to support, but they directly influenced her the most. How could she have agreed to Cordelia’s plan in the first place? 

Cordelia was certain that if they faced Michael just then, they would lose. All of humanity would lose. Too much was at stake to risk it all with such a weak chance of winning. Everything fell onto Mallory’s shoulders and her ability to travel back in time to stop Michael. Her failed attempt to save Anastasia proved that she needed time for her powers to develop. If Mallory were to pose a threat to Michael, she needed time for her cerebellum to grow enough to support an influx of magical powers. Cordelia’s powers laid dormant for years, only growing in strength once Fiona began to rapidly fade. Placing Mallory under an identity protection spell and hiding her from the Cooperative and Michael was the only way to ensure she would one day become strong enough to succeed.

Even understanding all of that, Mallory couldn’t accept the necessity of discarding who she was. Being trapped inside of herself was the most horrible thing she could imagine. She hadn’t been aware of it but that didn’t stop it from being just about the most painful thing she’d ever experienced. Her memories didn’t even have time to come rushing back to her as she stood uselessly to the side during the witches’ confrontation with Michael on the steps of Outpost 3. Mallory tried to absorb what was being said around her and to grasp the situation. Too soon, she realized what was being asked of her-or at least some part of her did. The old part of herself that wasn’t full of anger and bitter resentment urged her to act quickly, while the others created a diversion. 

Almost like a marionette pulled on strings, Mallory did what this part of her instructed her to do. She could feel her powers concentrating, surging forward at the potential of being unleashed, threatening to send her careening to the floor face-first. Somehow, she managed to climb into the claw-foot bath tub in Coco’s suite, taking a deep breath before submerging herself in water that came up to her shoulders. 

Let go, a voice urged her. Strangely, it was Michael’s voice that spoke to her now, inside of her head. Mallory wanted to claw her insides out, knowing some part of him had bled over into her subconcious. She’d die fighting him, scraping him out if she had to, disgusted by everything he’d done to her kind. Don’t be afraid, Mallory, his voice entreated her. A voice that had lulled her into a suggestive state during her interview in Venable’s office, getting to the thing that had been deeply repressed by Cordelia’s spell. Michael had been attempting to influence Mallory to cast off her humanity, with no idea what lurked underneath. Neither of them had any idea. Don’t be afraid of who you are.

Her body sank deep into the water, her spirit no longer in the tub at Outpost 3. Although she hadn’t spoken the words to the spell, she felt the words enter her and flow through her nonetheless, manifesting soundlessly. If she needed proof that Cordellia had been right about her needing time for her powers as Supreme to develop, here it was, in the form of nonverbal magic. It wasn’t just the spell she was submerged in now-it was pure magic, dark and vast, stretching all around her when she blinked her eyes open.

Here, her power, the ability to travel through time, appeared as a dark body of water, that threatened to drown her if she wasn’t careful. Each drop of water encompassed a point in time that called out to her. Her physical body remained behind at Outpost 3, in the bathtub, but here, her spirit floated through the vastness of time and space, in danger of becoming lost. You’re lost, she heard Michael’s voice say, and she blinked, remembering her purpose. She reached out a hand into the water and swam through a light, entering the past.

When she opened her eyes, she was standing in a street in a neighborhood, outside of a house. The sky was perfect blue, unmarred by the Nuclear Winter that had taken over the Earth in the present. Just a few hours ago, tears would have streamed down Mallory’s face to see the grass protruding from the lawn in front of her. Now it failed to move her while she could only focus on her purpose for being there. The smell of roses wafted on the breeze, and without knowing how, Mallory sensed this was the place where she was meant to be. Where it all began, and where she would find Michael.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I’ll try to write more but don’t have any plans or schedule. My children are in the hospital and it’s a really hectic time in our lives. They’re doing well but I’ve learned not to make ANY plans whatsoever, because God will laugh at them. In the meantime, Think of Lord Satan and Smile! Feel free to gush about Mallory or Michael or any of the cast, or cry about what happens in the finale. My tumblr is http://sta-wars.tumblr.com If anyone would like to beta, let me know!


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